You are here

Effects of Ocean Acidification and Warming on Marine Ecosystems

Ocean acidification has been recognised as one of the major challenges for marine ecosystems in the coming decades.

Rationale

Monitoring of ocean acidification across the European regions, from estuaries and coasts to open ocean, and its relationship with warming, remains largely underdeveloped.

Effects of ocean acidification, de-oxygenation and warming require long-term aligned research, concerted monitoring effort and modelling. This must be based on common methods and protocols. Efforts must be scaled up in under-sampled areas, such as the deep-sea, to understand the impacts on ecosystems.

Activities

Work towards a long-term monitoring programme to address the effects of ocean acidification and warming, to strengthen our knowledge of the combined effects of warming and acidification and de-oxygenation on marine ecosystems.

Research combining development / improvement of models and experimental research addressing: The combined effects on marine pelagic and shallow benthic ecosystems; the carbon cycle and the cycles of other key elements and processes such as ocean hypoxia; relationship between and combined impacts of climate change and human pressures; improved methods and models to reduce the uncertainty of projections on the carbon cycle in regional seas.

Research to improve our knowledge on the impact of acidification and warming on vulnerable deep-sea habitats and their biodiversity to support development of sustainable management measures as well as assessing climate risks in marine protected areas.

Timescales

Short term

Strengthen our knowledge of the combined effects of warming and acidification on marine ecosystems.

Improve our knowledge on the impact of acidification and warming on vulnerable deep-sea habitats and their biodiversity.

Establish a sustainable pan-European network to ensure critical mass and a long-term approach to deal with the effect of acidification and warming on the marine environment.